Just Property
by Rabble
Summary: A day in the life of a girl. A day that starts out like all the others...


Title: Challenge 4/02: Four elements, length limit   
Author: Rabble  
Author email: BadgerQueen@fanfix.zzn.com  
Catagory: The New Republic  
Keywords: Original characters, Angst.  
Spoilers:   
Rating: R, some violence.  
Summary: A day in the life of a girl after the empire has fallen.  
Disclaimer:   
This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by Lucasfilm, Ltd.   
No money is being made and no infringement is intended.   
I have no money, my pet rat ate it all, please don't sue me,   
this is just the result of watching too many videos and having a twisted mind. Have a nice day.  
Author's Note: The first fanfic i've ever posted! WOW!  
*note to self: get around to posted all the other stories i've written.* :)  
Challenge 4/02: Four elements, length limit   
In 1000 words or less, write a story containing the following:  
A rainstorm  
A pit droid  
purple cloth of any sort  
five coins  
  
It was cloudy that day, and we were in the fields trying to finish our chores quickly,   
so we wouldn't be working in the rainstorm that was coming.  
  
My sister had been sent to fix the pit droid around at the repair shop my friend Murrons' owner ran,   
as she was the best slave around for programming droids, as our owner often Meliora boasted at the tavern.  
Our father was watching the herd, our blind mother pulling shed hairs from their tangled, long coats,   
which would be spun into beautiful cloth and sold at the market.   
  
I pushed the shovel into the dry earth and threw my weight behind it,   
my brother behind me pulling the tubers from the loosened dirt, making a race of it.   
  
"Hah, ya're too slow Diallo! The monsoons will have passed before ya've done half the field!"  
  
I finished the digging and quickly put the shovel back into the shed and locked it.   
Turning back to the field I saw my friend Kanoa heading towards me and decided i'd help my brother after having a gossip.  
  
"He asked me out! Nyoka asked me out!" Kanoa sqealed the news to me.  
We giggled and chattered about boys for a few minutes, then Diallo came up.  
  
"If you gals wan' to get wet, stay here and gossip." He pointed to the darkening sky. "I'm going home"   
They quickly got walking in the direction of the town.  
"Do anythin' interestin' at ya school today Kan?" He asked her.   
Thats my brother, I thought to meself, always interested in school, not that he'd ever get to go.   
There wasn't any need, he'd be a farmer for his owner.   
"oh, The teachers showed us a holovid about the New Republic worlds... "  
"Really? Like what about it?" Diallo also tended to daydream about visiting far-away worlds.   
"Doesn't matter, Diallo, yu'll never see them!" I told him.  
  
Father often said it was a pity he wasn't more practical like his sisters.   
Mother would tell him to cheer up.   
Maimun often said he'd just make himself unhappy for no reason.   
I sometimes wondered if he'd try to run off in search of adventure.  
  
We said goodbye to Kanoa shortly after we reached the town,   
as the slave quarter was in the opposite direction to the area that Kanoas' family home was in.  
  
Brone, Diallo's best friend ran to us as the first drops hit the dusty unpaved streets of the slave quarter.   
"Hey, ya owner is at yar home, wanna see yu now." He ignored "The Kid" as him and Diallo often referred to me.  
Though a few narrow alleyways and three minutes later, we turned into the street leading to our home,  
and our owner Meliora was indeed standing there in the rain, but she wasn't alone.  
  
A large, heavy man with a scarred face stoodbeside her,  
dressed in wet purple silk outside our one-roomed home, and Brone gasped.   
"Good luck" he called as he headed back to his hut. "You'll need it!"  
  
Neither me or Diallo had any intention of keeping our owner waiting in front of a stranger, so we hurried over to her.  
She addressed Diallo "Hello slave, I see that girl was with you." I wondered if maybe she had a touch of sunstroke.   
She never acted that like that to us, she was the best master any of the slaves had.  
It was a source of pride for my family that we'd always been owned by her family.  
  
Then I saw how the stranger was looking at us. Like herd-beasts. I looked back at 'Liora.  
"Slave-broker." my brother whispered beside me. I saw the truth in her eyes.  
"It... it was a sure bet."  
  
"They are both yours. Get away an' let me see the goods!"   
He grabbed at my arm, squeezing painfully hard. Oh. He's checking for muscle tone.   
I recalled stories I'd heard from other slaves.  
This couldn't be happening. This couldn't be happening.   
  
My owner was explaining that "The girl is a lazy gossip, The boy is a strong one, very obedient, a good farmer."  
"I'll take the girl."  
"No, Surely, you'd rather have a good..."  
"The boy is plain, the girl is pretty. She'll get the better price."  
  
He was pulling me away from my brother, when i realised he'd made my owner give him my tracer.  
He held out five shiny coins, trying to buy my brother as well. My owner refused. Ex-owner.  
My brother tried to stop the slaver, but the man just hit him with a stick and my brother fell over, screaming in the mud.  
  
He had the paperwork   
For the first time in my life, my tracer was on.  
The rain kept falling. My face was wet.  
I, Laila Namir, was just property. 


End file.
